


Soldier Boy - 33 A.B.

by FanFicReader01



Series: The Unknown Below [9]
Category: Poets of the Fall
Genre: Blood, Death, Duality, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Flashbacks, Hurt/Comfort, Pain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-14
Updated: 2019-08-14
Packaged: 2020-08-23 17:41:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20246743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FanFicReader01/pseuds/FanFicReader01
Summary: During his years travelling with other Escapists, he’s learned a lot but there’s still so much he doesn’t know or remember yet. One terrifying thing that normal humans also suffer from, is their mortality. Not even Escapists are immune to it.





	Soldier Boy - 33 A.B.

They got mainly attracted to the noises, soon to be identified as agonizing screams and weapons.

Now realizing a pirate raid is happening, the group of Hibiki remains at the lower islands and out of sight of the criminals.

“I-is there no way to help them?” Jari whispers.

His friend and leader gives him a serious look. “_No_. You know them? They’re the Ragnarök! A dangerous bunch. We may have superior bodies, but even I wouldn’t dare to go near to these nutheads!”

Jari gulps. During his years travelling with other Escapists, he’s learned a lot but there’s still so much he doesn’t know or remember yet. One terrifying thing that normal humans also suffer from, is their mortality. Not even Escapists are immune to it.

“What are we going to do now?”

“We stay put. Wait till they gone. Hope they won’t spot us,” Hibiki replies. All Jari can do now, is sit down with the others, hearing the violence above them and hope it will be over soon. The man without a proper past clutches his chest in which his new kind of heart resides. Something that resembles black coal. Some screams later, Jari puts his hands onto his ears. Suddenly these gunshots sound familiar. Not familiar as in his life as an Escapist, but from who he used to be _before_ the Blast. Hesitatingly, he grabs his dog tags and looks at them. He must’ve been a soldier. Looking up to the islands above, make Jari wonder if he shouldn’t be glad he has no memories from his past.

At one point, another ship seems to have landed. Hibiki curses and Jari knows what this ship means too. The Mother Ship. Basically an enemy of Escapists. Again, Hibiki gestures everyone else to remain in the shadows. Jari tries to ignore the continuation of gunfire but then a different noise catches his ear. A crumbling foundation of sorts. Against Hibiki’s orders, Jari moves out of the shadow and walks closer to the edge of the island. Then he sees what the noise came from. A bridge is crashing down and-

Jari’s body moves on its own now. Thanks to his body, agility has been boosted. With ease he jumps from one island to another. His hands reach out to something that’s falling out of the sky along with the bridge’s ruins.

By the time Jari crashes onto the island beneath, he has to evade the falling pieces of wood and metal. He rolls over the grass and then he lays still. Next to him, lays a boy. Jari’s surprised he’d managed to save the kid like that. Sure, he looks bruised but he isn’t heavily injured at all.

“W-what are you?” the boy stammers. Snot drips out of his nose, tears fall down his cheeks. The initial word reminds Jari on how he’s often perceived as a monster now. He can’t control the strange mist emitting from his body.

“I’m Jari. No enemy,” he eventually introduces. He sticks out his hand and the boy hesitatingly takes the invitation. The poor kid’s trembling.

“Can you-, can you take me back to dad?”

Jari gulps. He could, but it might not be safe yet. Besides, he doesn’t know if he wants to expose the kid to the aftermath of violence.

“I can’t. Too dangerous still.”

“But my dad is there! And Sami” the boy quickly crouches over to the man and clutches onto his shirt. “_Please_! I have to know if they’re okay!”

“You want to die?” Jari snaps before he can stop himself.

“No, b-but… I have to know if my family made it out alive. I-, I don’t want to lose more family,” the boy snivels and begins to cry. Jari feels the presence of other Escapists now. When he looks up, he’s right. The rest have come out of their shelter and into the open.

“You… You saved that kid,” Hibiki stammers.

“I did before I could think.”

Hibiki frowns. Jari knows what the guy’s thinking. What to do with a_ human_ kid? Other members at their home base might not be happy with that. But they can’t easily drop the boy off at some human place either or they’ll risk getting killed. Jari has listened to enough stories.

“I’ll take care of him!” Jari says. “Responsible is me.”

“You sure?”

Jari steps up to his friend and grabs his wrist while giving him an intense glare.

_We can’t just leave the kid here – Else I might as well let him fall. – I’ll take all responsibility. If I’m exiled by the others, so be it! _

_ Fine. But you know about my warnings!_

_Yes._

The Escapists wait until the threats have been subdued. That’s when the group decides to go take a look on the surface. Jari knows what they’ll probably do: drink the blood of the fallen. Wrong as it is, it’s much better than having to kill humans themselves. So on in some twisted way, this is more ethical.

“I go with you,” the boy insists as he grabs Jari’s hand before the Escapist can leave.

“No. It’s not good for kids.”

“I’m…,” the boy looks at his feet and scowls. He turns his hands into fists. Still trembling. Then he looks back at Jari. “I’m used to it!”

Despite lacking a human heart beat, Jari feels his core tighten, his body shiver at the thought of this poor kid having been through something like this already.

“Come on, guys!” Hibiki yells from above.

Jari carries the kid as he jumps to the other islands. “Name?”

“I’m Petri.”

“Nice to meet you, Petri,” Jari’s smile quickly fades as they submerge to the crime scene. This must’ve been a market but it’s all trampled down. A few places show signs of recent fire. Bodies everywhere. It looks like a pure massacre. Jari’s hungry but this sure slows down his need to eat.

“This… This used to be my home. And that-, that was the farm,” Petri points out a burning mess in the distance. It’s close to where he fell down.

“I’m so sorry,” Jari gawks at the scene. When he turns around, Petri is already walking ahead. He’s searching for his family. The other Escapists are dumbfounded too. Some have overcome their emotions and start drinking in on the plenitude of blood.

There aren’t many times Hibiki’s group feasts on human blood, but the times they did, it was often after a violence event happened. Jari wonders if he’ll ever get used to it.

The man kneels down at one puddle of blood. His fingers dip into it and when his finger tips touch the bud of his tongue, a sudden flashback occurs.

Before his eyes, he sees men in uniforms. He is one of them. He must be. Bombs going off everywhere. Bloodshed and the rain that follows is blood. People are screaming. _Somebody_ is screaming Jari’s name.

“_Aaaaaaaahhhh!_” Jari comes back to his senses by an agonized scream. Back into the hellish landscape, the former soldier spots Petri not far away from him. The boy is surrounded by a creepy line of corpses. The bodies have their arms tied to their back. Looking at their clothes, Jari suspects they have been the perpetrators, the pirates. Most of them carry the insignia of the Ragnarök.

Petri stands over a corpse of a man with wild, blond hair and a hook for a hand. Petri then kicks the lifeless body.

“That’s what you get! _Ha!_ Fool, asshole!” Petri screams, tears still running down his young face. Jari hurts by the mere sight. This guy, he must’ve been responsible for the grief the boy is experiencing.

At one point, Jari decides to step in. it’s enough. He walks up to the boy and wraps his arms around the boy.

“That’s enough. He’s dead anyway.”

“_I wanted to kill him!_” Petri hisses but his sobbing is predominant.

Jari looks at the pirate’s body. A rake has been pierced through his flank. The guy must’ve suffered a painful death.

“Come. Let’s go,” Jari whispers. Reluctant, Petri follows the Escapist away from the death row.

\--

The group travels further and Jari makes sure Petri keeps close to him. The boy hasn’t spoken anymore ever since he’s seen the body of the murderer. Sometimes Jari exchanges looks with Hibiki who also seems at loss. The group only sets up a small campfire for the young boy. He needs that warmth more than any Escapist here.

“T-they were not there, Jari,” Petri whispers.

Jari’s eyes widen in surprise.

“Dad, Sami. I didn’t find their bodies.”

“Oh. Then, then they must’ve been… taken to the Mother Ship,” Jari suspects.

Petri looks at Jari with some hint of glee. “You think so?”

“Yeah.”

“Then they must be safe! The Mother Ship has always helped us farmers out!” Petri exclaims. Jari tries to smile but can’t forget about the atrocities the ship has done to his people. _Some of those Escapists were sane, conscious and thus innocent._

“Great then.”

“Will you help me find them? Chase after them?” Petri then asks.

“I-, well…,” Jari mutters. Shit. He looks at Hibiki for answers but the man doesn’t flinch.

“You saved me. So I trust you enough to help me with my next step.”

“I don’t-, I don’t think I can,” Jari stammers. He feels guilty as hell now.

“But my family has to know I’m still alive!” Petri yells. He’s even jumped up. Jari lowers his eyes in shame.

“Then you should’ve just let me crash to death,” Petri snarls. And with his boy anger he tramples away into the shadows of the night.

Unsure what to do now, Jari sits still until Hibiki pokes him. “Go.”

Jari gets up and runs after Petri who is sitting at the edge of the island, sobbing. Jari tries to lay a hand on the boy’s shoulder but he gets pushed away.

“Why’d you save me then? To now just… leave me?” Petri wonders, his voice muffled by his arms.

“It just happened.”

“Just happened?”

“I-, my body. Moved on its own,” Jari tries to explain but really doesn’t know either on why his body moved like that. “Maybe… Maybe I felt… like my duty. As a soldier.”

Petri’s moves slightly to the side, looking Jari in the eyes with one, teary eye. “You’re a soldier?”

“_Was_. But I guess my will to protect people, never went away.”

The boy gasps, takes in a few fresh breaths before asking more. “What are you now? You an Escapist?”

“I’m-, yes.”

“Dad warned us about those monsters.” Again, to be called a monster stings, but Jari knows that Escapists who’ve lost their mind are, in fact, real monsters. It’s a surprise these mindless ones can coordinate an attack. Hibiki once hypothesized that the core inside, is what connects all Escapists. That’s how they can somehow exchange words and memories by touch. And that’s why mindless ones almost act like a mind hive with Oblivion as its ‘mind’.

“Your dad smart.”

“You talk weird,” Petri remarks. Jari chuckles and smiles.

“Correct. My vocal cords damaged. Speaking is difficult for us.”

“Damn.”

“I wanted to talk to you. I’m sorry. For everything,” Jari genuinely apologizes for the events of today.

“I-it’s alright,” Petri mutters, looking away from the Escapist.

“I mean it. You don’t deserve this. Changed my mind. So, I’ll help.”

“_You do_?” new hope is instilled in those young eyes. Jari heavily nods. He isn’t prepared for what comes next: the young boy swinging himself around the Escapist’s neck.

“Thank you, so much, Jari!”

“Eheh, yes. I’ll reunite you with family. We go tomorrow.”

**Author's Note:**

> More stories begin to connect :')


End file.
